WTF? cover art

WTF?

A Times top 10 bestseller

 Preview
Get this deal Try Premium Plus free
Offer ends 29 January 2026 at 11:59PM GMT.
Prime members: New to Audible? Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Just £0.99/mo for your first 3 months of Audible.
1 bestseller or new release per month—yours to keep.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, podcasts, and Originals.
Auto-renews at £8.99/mo after 3 months. Cancel monthly.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically.

WTF?

By: Robert Peston
Narrated by: Luke Thompson, Robert Peston
Get this deal Try Premium Plus free

£8.99/mo after 3 months. Cancel monthly. Offer ends 29 January 2026 at 11:59PM GMT.

£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £12.99

Buy Now for £12.99

LIMITED TIME OFFER | £0.99/mo for the first 3 months

Premium Plus auto-renews at £8.99/mo after 3 months. Terms apply.

About this listen

 THE TOP 10 BESTSELLER

'Richly argued and brilliantly written... a deeply thoughtful analysis that should be mandatory reading for anyone seeking to understand where we have gone wrong.' Vernon Bogdanor, Financial Times

In WTF? Robert Peston draws on his years of experience as a political, economics and business journalist to show us what has gone bad and gives us a manifesto to put at least some of it right.

Framed by two letters to his father (who died in early 2016) WTF? is Robert Peston's highly personal account of what those who have ruled us for years got so badly wrong, and what we need to do to mend the terrible fractures in our society.

With characteristic passion and clarity he looks at what must happen to prevent democracy being subverted by technocratic geniuses with the ability to manipulate social media, how and whether it is possible to make a success of leaving the EU, what the lessons should be of the appalling Grenfell Tower tragedy, whether robots can be stopped from taking our work, what can be done to staunch the widening gap between rich and poor, and how to raise living standards for all.

WTF? is a trenchant, often entertaining account of the recent past. It is also a call to action, giving hope to all of us who believe that taking back control is not only vital, but possible.

'A manual for our times that everyone should read.' Matthew d'Ancona©2017 Robert Peston Political Science Politics & Government Thought-Provoking Capitalism Socialism Russia Taxation

Listeners also enjoyed...

 How to Run Britain cover art
The Making of Modern Britain cover art
How They Broke Britain cover art
The Occupy Handbook cover art
Naked Statistics cover art
How Britain Really Works cover art
American Amnesia cover art
Women of Westminster cover art
Mindful Compassion cover art
The End of History and the Last Man cover art
The Establishment cover art
Positive Populism cover art
This Book Will Change Your Mind About Mental Health cover art
Ten Drugs cover art
Defeating the Dictators cover art
The Promises of Giants cover art
All stars
Most relevant
I listened to this book in two days. A fantastically researched, fair and balanced view of a number of topics, including: what went wrong in the UK and the USA in 2016; Gordon Brown's (lack of) public spending before and after the Blair years; regionalism; living standards; Theresa May's own goals as Prime Minister; Donald Trump; fake news; zero hours; Grenfell; immigration; automation; and some progressive suggestions for a post Brexit UK. Peston perhaps throws in too many statistics at times but some of them are genuinely surprising and contradict popular stereotypes. Whilst a self-confessed 'Metropolitan liberal' he writes very evenly, seeing both sides of the argument and recognising that the metropolitan liberals ignored the anger of those lower down the social scale for years. He rarely resorts to name calling or emotional opinion, using reasoned fact to back up his arguments. If we are ever to move forward as a society we need to stop putting our fingers in our ears to opinions different to our own and try to listen. That this book is selling so well proves that there are a considerable number of people who are attempting to do so. An utterly essential book.

Balanced view of UK and the world

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Really interesting and well-thought-through stuff. The parts on education especially pertinent. Seemed balanced and nuanced and very enjoyable overall!

Fascinating!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Robert Peston's incisive analysis makes fascinating listening. His remedial recommendations are stimulating. The first chapter is read by the author and I found the changeover a little strange at first but quickly got used to it. A very worthwhile few hours of listening.

Superb dissection of the UK today

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
An immediate criticism one would make is that this book is journalistic, but to its credit, it reads more like investigative journalism rather than sensationalist journalism.
Having owned the Kindle edition for some time, I was somewhat unenthusiastic about reading due to the fact that it is from someone who is essentially a newsman, and I myself, like many others (as Preston acknowledges in the book) have lost faith in the news media.
However, this book provides a decent alternative to the newsmedia. Rather than learning about everything from 2016 in a perpetual cascade of emotion manipulating, pontificating journalism, one can simply read (or rather listen) to this book instead.
Interesting insights within the book are the follies of Theresa May's Premiership (among which triggering Article 50 at an untimely date) and the, now rather corrosive effects of social media. The latter is by now very well documented, but Peston's take on the matter is nonetheless insightful.
Peston himself only narrates the first and the final chapters, however, Luke Thompson's narration throughout the main body of the book is a welcome alternative, as Peston himself can be irritating at times.
On the whole, an enjoyable book and a good alternative to 2 years of news.

A decent alternative to 2 years of news

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
great insight and fact based opinion, explained in an easy to understand way. would recommend.

insightful

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
See more reviews